Close your eyes and imagine the Portland of 2025. Imagine … a city that attracts young people from all around the world. A city with a diverse array of business opportunities. A city with more of our students staying in school, going to local colleges and graduating to work in local jobs.

All right, now open your eyes. It’s 2015. How do we get there?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Spritz is manager of the workforce development initiative Growing Portland.

If we want a thriving Portland, a global competitor, a mecca for young people, then what do we do today to make that future possible?

Those questions gave birth to Growing Portland. This collaborative was created jointly through the office of Portland Mayor Michael Brennan and the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. It’s gone on to become a widespread partnership, convening leaders from local colleges, local research and development institutions and local businesses.

Together, these partners have agreed to focus on certain sectors that can help to define our economic success. We’re focusing on certain key areas of promise:

• Health care informatics: Growing Portland identified this field, where health care and data analysis intersect, as a regional asset with significant room for growth. And we researched and wrote the report that forms the basis for building an informatics center here.

• Marine economy: Our working waterfront is what distinguishes our city. But too often we ignore it, or take it for granted. Growing Portland started the popular Walk the Working Waterfront program.

We’re also building a network for institutional purchasers of local seafood. And we’re developing plans for an online portal showcasing the dynamism, diversity and opportunities of our marine economy.

• Workforce development: The Portland we imagine includes career opportunities for all sorts of people, not limited by the color of their skin, where they were born or how much money their household makes.

We’re working with the Greater Portland Workforce Initiative to identify businesses and sectors that could be employing people who want to work and build careers, but who need assistance making the connection.

In each of these areas, Growing Portland serves as a conduit between programs “in the street” and the office of Mayor Brennan.

Why the mayor? Because that’s part of his job, as written into the city charter: “To articulate the city’s vision and goals and build coalitions to further such visions and goals.” As one such coalition, Growing Portland has become a vital link between the interests of the city and the interests of job creators.

Another coalition that the mayor has built has been the loose-knit association of organizations working on economic development. These include not only Growing Portland but also the city’s Department of Economic Development, Creative Portland, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Portland’s Downtown District, etc., etc. Together, these organizations (and many others) are starting to build the Portland of tomorrow.

You can start to see the results in the 2015 Economic Scorecard. Issued annually by the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce, the scorecard measures city and region performance against national benchmarks.

There’s always room for improvement, but this year’s scorecard notes progress in critical areas. Employment growth in key sectors, growth in our exports through the port of Portland, growth in restaurant and lodging retail sales – these are just a few of the positive indicators we’re seeing.

And it may not be in the city charter, but that’s another area where Mayor Brennan has exemplified a new spirit in City Hall: a spirit of cooperation with the chamber.

You can see it in the scorecard, which is now aligned with the city’s Economic Development Vision and Plan. You can even see it in Growing Portland itself, which was conceived with strong input from Chris Hall at the chamber, as well as Mayor Brennan.

Do the chamber and the Office of the Mayor always see eye to eye on what the issues are, or how to proceed? Of course not. But we’re fortunate to have, at both organizations, leadership that’s determined to move forward.

The projects that Growing Portland is working on today will bear fruit in the years to come. That timeline may seem ambitious, but that’s all right with us. We’ve imagined the Portland of 2025, and we’re eager to make it a reality.

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Thomas Harmon

Portland has as much or more potential than any other city in the U.S. to grow its economy. What it doesn’t have that all other great and growing cities have is a substantial university. The current state and size of USM in Portland is kind of laughable compared to other city universities. Since Portland is seeing growth in the biotech area, perhaps a focus on this would be a smart idea. Portland is only 2.5 hours by train from Boston, where this industry is flourishing. If USM (should be UMP) could expand with 2 or 3 large buildings and a hi-rise dorm for students, this would be a good start. The Chinese are studying and locating to the U.S. and that would be an excellent supplement model to the viability of the program. (look at Thornton Academy, 15 miles south, with its new STEM program and over 100 Chinese students) If you want a future economy in addition to tourism (which will take a big dive during the next recession), building buildings that don’t “look like Maine,” is necessary (though smart design can always give it a nice Maine accent). If you research what is happening in Cambridge now in biotech it is becoming a center for the entire world. Portland could be a nice periphery supplier to this industry. But it will take leadership and going against the “let’s keep Portland livable mentality.” By recent behavior in the city, regrettably, I have serious doubts.

Jo Hill

Totally agree, USM was marginal before and is being whittled into a joke today.

Brian Peterson

Agree Tom…well said.

Thomas Harmon

moreover, if you get a chance take the downeaster down to boston (a very enjoyable ride) and then hop on the red line to cambridge and get off at kendall/MIT. you will think you are on another planet. every big internet company is represented here, in addition to numerous big pharma companies. there are also thousands of chinese students going to harvard and MIT (not to mention B.U. B.C., etc.). when the 100 current chinese students at thornton academy in saco graduate, they sure wont be going to a college in portland (MECA?… Lol) do they have money? my banker here in LA (i commute back and forth from LA to portland) told me he worked at a branch across from UCLA last year. he said it was normal to see a chinese student get 50K a month from their families for expenses. (that’s half a mill a year, folks). why does portland not welcome the chinese? do portlanders prefer lower incomes? boston sure doesnt. in fact, i think portland is a better place to live. sure its not as big, but the temperature difference is only 5 degrees (on average according to NOAA data) its simple, if USM can’t become a bigger and more modern university with its high tech schools, nobody will attend. it sure wont be from mainers as mainers aren’t having kids anymore–maine needs new immigrants (overwhelming data on that one) hopefully the harvard educated ethan strimling will become the next mayor because the current one does not understand the importance of higher tech education in today’s world. the large university is key to attracting new high tech businesses (IDEXX and WEX CEO’s said this too). harvard’s new science center will have 500 stem cell scientists working there when it is finished. there is a symbiotic relationship between university science programs and the biotech industry. portland needs to wake up or shut up and be content with its status as a nice little weekend destination for tourists to eat and watch boats in the harbor.

Lauren Sterling

Let’s not forget the ConnectEd initiative that was established with leadership from Mayor Brennan. Creating and implementing a coordinated education pipeline from birth through age 24 — and beyond — is critical and Mike’s vision and leadership (along with others) should be acknowledged.

Jo Hill

Interesting that “local colleges” are mentioned only as a passing concern and not a key point. USM was what attracted me to Portland originally, and it’s being decimated. You can’t have a city that attracts significant amounts of young people without a major university with ample graduate programs — not just a “local college.”

Scott Harriman

You forgot affordable housing. Regular people are getting priced out of Portland.

Luxury condos bring in a lot of property taxes, but a city can’t have a healthy economy if only rich people can afford to live there.

markusinger

Some of the people involved in the effort should be charged with prostitution…